


The Witch's Secret

by AgapantoBlu



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: But nothing detailed, Crossdressing, Crossdressing!Kuroko, Inquisition-Knight!Akashi, Little bit of violence here and there, M/M, Unspecified Setting, mentions of inquisition, prince!Kuroko
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-15
Updated: 2016-01-15
Packaged: 2018-05-14 02:52:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5726992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgapantoBlu/pseuds/AgapantoBlu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Akashi has served the Inquisition as his father's best general his whole life, so it comes as no surprise when he's asked to find, check and eventually capture a wandering girl who is charged of witchcraft.</p><p>What comes as a <i>little</i> surprise is, instead, the fact that the girl is in reality <i>not a girl at all</i>.</p><p>Akashi never thought he could end up in such a situation and things only promise to get worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Witch

 

_**Part I** _

 

Akashi felt like suffocating in the echo of his steps on the dark corridor to his Father’s room. He was wearing his white shirt under a black coat and had his brown trousers and his black boots on, his sword dangling softly on his belt side: nobody could discern him as the only son of the main general of the Inquisition, but his red eyes showed clearly how dangerous he was.

He had never like cathedrals, too much candles and hypocrisy and unattended pleads that made his determination waver. The walls of thick stone, painted in dark-blue by the nights shades and barely lightened by the trembling flames of the torches, led him inevitably forward to the wooden door, but right before it they opened up in deep and tall hallows, seven for each side.

Seijuro didn’t change the fast of his steps, but his eyes slipped carefully on each one of the statues within those dens. The seven on his right represented males while the seven on his left were females.

_Prudence_., he thought while eyeing the first male statue, then he mentally named all the others,  _Justice. Temperance. Courage. Faith. Hope. Charity._  His gaze moved back on the first feminine statue and then it went on every one, with a disgusted expression on his face.  _Wrath. Greed. Sloth. Pride. Lust. Envy. Gluttony._

He laid his hand on the wooden door with renewed will, because those weren’t only statues, simple men and women; they were the Seven Virtues and the Seven Sins.  _Saints and Witches._

***

Akashi Masaomi was a faithful man wearing only black clothes and a silver rosary around his neck. His dark hair were cut short, differently from his son’s long red locks; his grey eyes checked carefully the guy’s heterochromatic ones before he crossed his arms behind his back and turned to watch out of the window, showing no respect to the best commander in his army.

Seijuro simply lowered his head, used to the cold treatment. His father was a strict man and he knew that with his appearance it was already a miracle that he wasn’t on the other side of the blade already.

“She’s some kind of gipsy.” The nineteen-year-old warrior lifted his eyed and listened carefully to his new mission. “She dances and sings, but nobody knows the language or the music and she disappears into thin air at night.”

Akashi’s hand instinctively touched his sword’s hilt. He knew what those signs were making his father think.

Masaomi turned a bit and observed his son with the corner of his eye.

“Investigate her,” he ordered, “and bring her to me.”

Akashi bowed his head with a clear “Yes, Father.” and silently turned to exit the room.

While passing again under the stern gazes of the Virtues and the mocking ones of the Sins, he thought for a moment that it wasn’t fair. To be a Saint, he needed to incarnate all of the seven qualities; but a single mistake was enough to make a person a Witch.

It was just a moment, though.

***

The streets were bright and the light reflected on the dust lifted by the chariots and horses; some straw was mixed with the dried mud and the buzzing noise of steps and chatting made Seijuro’s eyes fly everywhere restlessly.

While avoiding a couple of kids running from their mother’s yelling, he snorted. It was almost midday and he was looking for the suspect since eight in the morning, but still there were no traces of her. Sure, he could have asked for information but that would have made completely useless his effort to leave his sword in his room and to move around with simply a dagger. It was a great risk for someone in his position, with heretic enemies everywhere, but he'd rather study his target in disguise before formally accusing her.

He was adjusting the hood on his head when a voice reached his ears.

It was bright and high, refreshing like pure water and ringing like thousands of bells, reaching straight for the sky as if owned by an angel. With the only difference that angels were genderless, while this one was clearly a girl’s.

Seijuro stopped and listened for a second, trying to decipher the meaning of the words, but he frowned when he realized he wasn’t able to. It was surprising, since he had learned almost eleven languages, five of which were dialects. Could it be…?

He hurried up to the corner of a house and then slowly turned it as if he knew perfectly where he was going and what he would have found there.

It was no more than a mat on the ground surrounded by a bunch of amazed kids, three smiling women and two shocked men, but there, jumping on her feet, spinning around, sensually moving her hands on the hair stood her.

The girl was probably younger than him; white pale skin on a slim body, barely covered in a white but worn out dress whose sleeves had been cut off, the cloth falling miserably on her completely flat chest and a belt trying to make it adherent to the little waist despite the size being clearly off. Either she had starved so much that it had turned out too big or she had taken it from someone else, which would add thievery to her already difficult situation. She was singing and her thin lips moved fast and seemingly effortlessly, but her face was distorted in a concentrated and almost pained expression, as if that show was taking a big tool on her. Was it because she was tired or because she was casting a great spell? Seijuro kept his guard up as he approached the show. The girl had a veil on her head that was tied up on her nape and hid her hair, but some strands had fallen on his forehead and reflected the same shade of the sky, a pure mesmerizing blue that was probably just a shade lighter than the big round irises in her eyes. She had dust on her face and arms and legs and her bare feet were covered in mud, but Seijuro found himself widening his eyes all the same. Despite everything, she was gorgeous. The face, the line of the shoulders, the length of her legs, the shape of her body, her lips and cheeks and nose and eyes, everything was perfect.

But it was just a moment of weakness before Akashi regained control of himself.

He instinctively moved his hand toward his side, but found nothing. He was already regretting leaving his sword because something was definitely off with that woman; he just didn’t know what precisely.

_No big deal._ , he chose, passing over the show to hide behind the corner at the other side of the road. He just had to watch a little more to find out.

***

The girl danced and sang with no breaks ‘til sunset left her with no choice but to pack her few things – just her mat and a little sack she had used to collect the few coins she had earned – and hurry up away before the night guards caught her. It was not forbidden to wander for the streets at night, but try to sell something theoretically was and those soldiers were not really nice with young beauties, usually. Seijuro bit his tongue at the thought, but decided to ignore the matter for the time being; instead he silently followed his prey.

She was fast, more than he had expected, and more than one time he almost lost her in the shadows. It could have looked as if she had vanished in the darkness, but his eyes were sharper than average and spotted her relatively easily. He wondered if that was the reason for the charge of witchcraft against her; it would make sense.

She managed to buy a piece of old bread from the backer’s wife, on the doorstep of the shop back, and then she left again, toward the walls around the city.

Seijuro tailed after her, never losing sight, and then he spotted her moving a big stone from the ground. He was surprised that she managed to move such an heavy rock, but as soon as she vanished under it and place it back in its place, he got near and discovered it was just wood masterfully disguised as stone.

It was no good news when the suspect had a secret hiding, but he ignored it and slipped underground. It was far more difficult to chase her in the complete darkness and her steps made no sound, but luckily she hadn’t noticed him and lighted a torch before resuming her walk, making it all easier to Seijuro. It took only some seconds for her to reach a new surface again and Akashi widened his eyes when she entered the wood and he could exit from the disguised hole jus to find out they were out of the walls.

It was all too strange now and he pulled his dagger out of his boot before resuming his hunting.

The naïve prey moved skilfully between trees and hurried up her pace to a little lightened glade, forcing Seijuro to hide behind a trunk and spy.

There was a fire and two men around it, one muscular and tanned with dark blue hair and one a bit slimmer but athletic with striking blond locks and something shining at his left lobe.

_Earring?_ , Akashi thought, frowning. Only a few populations, far away from there, had men wearing those; in the other cultures it was considered a feminine act and Akashi was sure it was dangerous while fighting, but that gave an explanation to the language: if they were from those places, even him had no chances to know their idiom and without it meaning any black magic involvement.

Akashi Masaomi was prone to deliver death sentences, but Akashi Seijuro was more for ‘evidences first’.

The two men jumped on their feet when the girl addressed them, apparently because they hadn’t noticed her, and were immediately all over her like apprehensive mothers, the bigger one grabbing her arm carefully and the blond one hugging her whole body while crying. Seijuro didn’t felt like relaxing, though: both of them had something that seemed…dangerous.

Then he heard it.

He threw himself on the ground, rolled and got on his knee with his dagger out right on time to block a second strike aiming straight to his head. A huge man with hair in a red slightly darker than his and with strangely bifurcate eyebrows lifted his two-hand sword before trying to hit him for a third time.

“Fucking midget!” he growled when Seijuro rolled away and managed to kick his side, but the shorter red-head realized it was not the time to avenge his pride – even if he  _really_  wanted to, because  _nobody_ called him a  _midget_  and got out  _alive_ – because the two other warriors immediately appeared beside what seemed to be their comrade.

“The fuck, Taiga?!” the bluette asked, and the man pointed at him.

“He was following Kuroko!” he growled, “He has for the whole day, the bloody pervert!”

Akashi raised an eyebrow at the accusation, but kept his guard high. He had the feeling this was all a huge misunderstanding, but how could he trust some vagabonds who had used secret passages to exit the city? They wouldn’t have had to do it if they had nothing to hide.

Assuming that ‘Kuroko’ was the girl, Akashi noticed that all the three men turned immediately more dangerous at the idea of someone following their precious lady and he guessed they wouldn’t let him go that easily so he lifted his dagger a bit more and bent his legs, ready to strike. He knew he could win even the three of them together, he was the best swordsman in the whole country after all, but before he could start a small frame blocked his field of vision.

He widened his eyes realizing it was the little girl facing his comrades with her arms spread open as to prevent them from attacking. He wasn’t sure who was the most surprised, if he or the three of them.

“T-Tetsu? What are you doing?” asked the blue-haired one and Akashi frowned. Wasn’t she named ‘Kuroko’?

“You three should be ashamed of yourselves.” the girl scolded, but her voice lacked of any emotion and Seijuro was so surprised that it took him a second to realize that…it wasn’t  _feminine_ anymore. 

_A man?!_ , he widened his eyes while reaching his conclusion and right then the object of his wondering turned toward him.

There was no veil and short strands framed an angelic but expressionless face; the dress was half removed and the upper part hanged down on the belt, leaving exposed the breast-less and slightly muscled trunk of a young man – maybe not a really strong one but definitely a man.

The boy bowed respectfully to Akashi, startling him even more.

“I apologize for my friend’s rudeness.” he says, “As a compensation, if you wish, we’d be very glad to have you with us for the night.”

A shocked “What the fuck?!” from the other red-head and the blue one and a whimper from the blond were promptly ignored as the teal one kept on staring straight at him and in the end Seijuro, not knowing how, found himself lowering his blade and following the other boy.

***

Akashi wasn’t a fool. He knew there was something shady in that group of people and so he sat at the other side of the fire as soon as the three warriors ganged up around their precious friend. Seriously, what was their problem?

He stole a glance at the fake-girl’s face. He was little and looked frail, that was true, but when he felt Seijuro’s eyes on him he lifted his and there was no fear in those orbs. They looked apathetic but Akashi could see something sparkling at the very bottom, deep in the blackness of the pupils. That boy was  _not_  weak, he could sense it.

They offered him – clearly forced by that ‘Kuroko’ – some bread with dried meat and Akashi had to work hard to chew them. They were cold and hard as stones: if that was their usual meal, no wonder the teal-head was so thin; the real surprise was for the others not to be like him.

They just ate silently.

***

It was during night, with the blond man guarding, that the teal head got up.

Seijuro was obviously awake, but it startled him all the same to see the boy shushing his friend and crawling toward him. The blond-head shot him a warning glare, but said nothing.

Kuroko patted his arm once and then gestured him to come along.

Akashi hesitated for a second but then he decided that if the other wanted to kill him, he would have no need to hide it from the other three – they seemed eager to give their help –, thus he slowly got up and followed him.

He could feel the blonde’s glare piercing his back.

***

Kuroko brought him just some meters from their base, enough to not be heard by the others, then suddenly turned. His eyes were cold, but something could be seen boiling at the bottom of the pupils, so well hidden that Akashi barely managed to spot it.

“You’re not from the streets.” Seijuro’s eyes widened a little at the blunt statement, but the other prevented him from asking. “Your clothes are barely worn out, you’re good with your weapon and you were startled at this dinner’s meal. You’re not a vagabond as much as you’re not a criminal. Are you from nobility? Some high-rank family maybe?”

_Observant._ , Akashi noted, mentally slapping himself for his carelessness.

What was he supposed to say now? The other boy, wearing only a pair of trousers filled with holes and patches but with his bare chest and feet, was staring attentively at him and the moonlight over them had his hair shining in a silver shade. Even for a male, he definitely was beautiful. Not that Seijuro was going to fall for him, obviously.

“Why should I tell you?” he answered instead, crossing his arms and bending his head a little, mockingly studying his interlocutor.

Kuroko shook his head.

“You don’t have to, in fact.” he gave up easily, half turning to stare at the moon, leaving Akashi to paint the silhouette of his little frame. His skin looked like milk and his lips seemed to shine.

Akashi pinched his own arm discretely, unnoticed, but hardly. It hurt enough for his mind to come off of its unacceptable thoughts.

“I was of royal family.”

_That_  caught Akashi’s attention almost immediately and even his huge self-control couldn’t stop the shocked expression rising on his face. Kuroko stole a glance at him and for a second Seijuro thought he saw a little smile, but it was gone too soon to be sure and the teal boy immediately went back to his moon.

“My mother had me just a few weeks after my father’s death. He was the king of a realm too far from here for you to know.” His voice was steady, empty, but Akashi felt drained to it all the same and his eyes wouldn’t move from the other’s face. “The day I was born, though, my mother’s womb gave my line two sons. You know what’s the most common outcome when twins are born for a single throne?”

Akashi didn’t wander; he could see the scene far too well in his own mind.

“A civil war.” he murmured, his arms falling limp beside him, but Kuroko simply nodded.

“To avoid that, it was told to the whole kingdom that Her Majesty had given birth to a couple of twins, a boy and a  _girl._ ”

“I see…” Akashi murmured, bringing a hand to his chin, “If the heirs are of opposite gender, the one to inherit is always the male. Matters like firsts and seconds or value don’t matter anymore.” And that would explain the ability of Kuroko to disguise himself as a girl, even to sing and dance like one. Again, no black magic involved.

The young prince allowed himself a faint smile, but this time he kept it on long enough for Seijuro to admire its beauty before the other started his talk again.

“For twelve years, my brother and I took turns in pretending to be the girl so that the other could attend lessons and meeting and our mother could choose who to crown as the king in our father’s place. It was fair so we both accepted it, as brothers and friends. To be honest, it was pretty clear since the very beginning that I didn’t have the skills to rule over others. I used to read more, was a better tactician and handed better the negotiations, but had little physical strength, no ability with swords and this apathetic face, while my brother Akira was a true leader, a great warrior and a man our people easily loved. When we were fifteen and my mother told me he would have been the king, I was honestly happy. The matter was how to get rid of me before I grew up too much to keep on pretending I was a girl. Akira and I came up with a plan: I would have pretended to take my vows and become a nun, then he would have made me escape from the abbey and everybody would have simply thought I was still locked in it.”

Akashi was honestly surprised.

“I guess the abbess was on your side?” he carefully asked.

Kuroko’s eyelids fell a little.

“She was my mother’s sister; we thought she was trustworthy.”  _Thought._ , Akashi noticed. “She didn’t know either that I was a male and so she informed one of the more rebellious aristocrat in our court. In order to overpower my brother, he was planning on kidnapping his sister and forced her to marry him, having a legitimate heir from her and then kill Akira.”

“Guessing you brother still wouldn’t have an heir of his own by then, this man’s son would have been the only person of royal blood left.” Seijuro concluded, “It makes sense.”

“But I wasn’t a girl.” Kuroko surprised the other as he chuckled a bit, in a sad way though, “When they entered the abbey, I was with my two guards, Aomine-kun and Kise-kun, respectively the blue-haired and blond-haired ones you just met. The three of us managed to escape and to reach the kingdom border; once there, my brother helped us passing it. We crossed the whole country and the kingdom after it too and the one still after; we couldn’t allowed anyone to see my face and recognize Akira in me so we had to put the greatest distance between us and my homeland.”

Finally, Kuroko turned to face Akashi and his irises had now a warm light at their bottom, a kind and reassuring one.

“And here we are.” he whispered, “What a strange story, isn’t it?”

Akashi wasn’t sure of it.

Greed, lust, wrath, envy, pride: there were at least five sins in Kuroko’s enemies figures; but within him… 

Prudence, justice, temperance, courage, faith, hope and charity: Akashi could see them all in Kuroko’s eyes.

_He’s not a witch._ , he thought,  _He couldn’t be farther from one._

But would his father believe him? Would he take pity in a man who perversely disguised himself as a woman?, on someone who planned of using the holy vows to protect himself? He wouldn’t, Akashi knew it. Royal families were chosen by God and royal people were God’s tool to guide his creatures: Kuroko, with his actions, was consequently a betrayer of God.

The mere image of that little body burning on the pyre made Akashi sick.

Kuroko noticed it and seemed a little surprised, but didn’t mention it.

“We picked Kagami, the red-head, during our travel; he had moved to another country and unconsciously committed a bunch of heresies so he, too, is a runaway like us.” he said instead, “We’re going to meet with a surgeon named Midorima and his bodyguard Murasakibara in a city fifteen days from here. My brother sent them ahead of us so that they could prepare a place where I can hide and they found a town where nobody had even ever heard of my country.”

“What does it have to do with me?” Akashi asked, despite knowing already.

Kuroko’s eyes were honest when he asked: “Come with us.”

Akashi’s weren’t when he moved them away and let the other pass him to come back to their fire.

What should he do?

***

The walls around the city were tall and dark, making it look like a cage, even in the dawn light. 

Akashi eyed them wondering what would happen over them in a few hours, but had little time for it because Kagami’s loud voice as he kept on bantering with Aomine made him turn.

Kuroko passed through the two warriors ignoring their disappointment and reached for him. He didn’t ask anything, he never did, but put a hand on his shoulder as he made a gesture with his head to a hidden track between the trees.

Akashi turned and laid something on the street side, but then faced Kuroko again and nodded as they both started to walk behind their three comrades. 

He had no idea as to why he was doing what he was doing, but he’d never felt so free, so  _right_ , in his whole life. He had no idea either as to how his father would react to his disappearance – would he think him dead?, would he ever know of his escape?,  _would he care?_  -, but he realized it didn’t really matter.

His rosary shone lightly behind them, as if calling him back, but he never turned.


	2. The Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akashi learns to endure his companions' idiocy. And something happens.

 

_Part II_

 

The first thing Akashi learned, and within the first hour of the first day marching with his new crew, was that Kagami, Aomine and Kise were absolutely unable to not bicker. It didn’t matter the reason - they would eventually find a vaguely reasonable one - but it seemed to be their life-goal to quarrel with each other. It gave Seijuro a pretty good headache.

As the three man walked in front, with their cloaks on but their hoodies off, Akashi was two steps behind them and had his face well covered too: his and his father’s men could have been easily around the area. True, they were in the depth of the forest and there were little chances for his escape to be already found out since it wasn’t rare for him to spend days after a suspect before reporting, but still, it was better be safe than sorry.

To conclude, prince Kuroko Tetsuya, also known with a bunch of nicknames that were – yes, they too – worsening Akashi’s headache, walked behind them all, right on Seijuro’s tail. It would have felt uncomfortable to be trapped between those strangers if not for the fact that Kuroko couldn’t really be considered a threat to anybody, and luckily his lack of presence made it also easier to pretend he wasn’t even there. Speaking of which, Akashi turned to make sure he  _was_  still there, since they weren’t walking on any path as to not leave traces on the main roads.

By the way, he wasn’t.

Akashi halted immediately and his alarmed “What?!” managed to stop for a second his comrades’ bantering.

“What now, General Sir?” mocked Aomine turning lazily, “Stepped on some dog’s shi-… Where the fuck is Tetsu?!”

Akashi was so caught up into mentally cursing the little prince that he didn’t even react to the tanned man’s disrespect. Instead, he ran back immediately, soon followed by the other three, and turned right at the hollow tree, his dagger already in his hand. Just to stop on his track and gape, shocked, when he spotted the cause of his worriedness.

Tetsuya was picking up flowers.  _Fucking damn flowers_.

“Kurokocchi!” Kise reprimanded childishly, passing over him to stop beside his master and kneel beside him, “You gave us a scare!”

The little prince’s voice was completely unapologetic as he said “Sorry” without even looking at his friends in the eyes. Seijuro was seriously going to complain when he noticed the purple flowers and black berries the guy was picking up.

“Those are poisonous.” he warned, “It’s…”

“… _Deadly Nightshade._ ” the prince finished for him, nodding solemnly, “I know, I used to study a bit of botany at the palace. These can come pretty handy in some situations, but we ran out of them.”

Akashi wasn’t sure he wanted to know  _how_  they had run out of those.

“You could have told us you stopped, idiot!” Kagami growled, still reaching for the other two to help them pick the berries.

“I did.” The prince was apathetic while saying those words and he completely ignored the insult, but something made Seijuro think he was pouting. He shook his head to clear his mind and crossed his arms before his chest, looking down at the trio before giving a check up to their surroundings.

Aomine, he noticed, was doing the same, with his hand steadily posed on his two-handed sword. At least one of their group didn’t really look like an idiot.

“Ohi, Tetsu! What are those berries that seem boobs?”

 _Look like_ , indeed.

Akashi laid with his back against a tree and took a deep breath while pinching at the bridge of his nose, a vague attempt to stop his growing migraine, but the low buzzing of the other four and the chirping of birds around him let other worries come to him.

What should he do, now? He had absolutely nothing with him if not the clothes on his body, a little purse with no more than twenty silver coins and his dagger. Well, he could earn money some other way that didn’t involve fighting – at least as long as they were close enough for his father to hear about him – but that only once they could approach a city and it seemed like it would take at least fifteen days. That much he had could sustain him for that long but was surely not enough for five people and the idea of sending Kuroko in the streets of the next city to earn something by dancing and pretending to be a girl didn’t appeal him at all: he’d been noticed and mistook for a witch once, what if it happened again? Not every man of the Inquisition was so eager to throw away his life to join such a weird brigade. Speaking of which, what was he thinking when he had done it?!

Akashi sighed, feeling his headache growing even more, and raised his eyelids to look at Kuroko again.

There was nothing royal in the way he was kneeling on the hard ground, with his brown trousers worn out and patched and the previously-white shirt turned yellow by wind and dust. He picked up flowers and berries ignoring the little insects that ran on his hands or bit his arms – differently from Kise who was just now screaming because of a  _worm_  – and the way Kagami was still reprimanding him or Ryouta clang to his arm was way overfamiliar for a prince and his personal guards. He looked more like a servant with his teal hair awfully wild - despite all the attempts in taming them since that morning - and dried mud on his cheeks and his quiet demeanour. He wondered if it had been hard, at first, to get used to such a Spartan life after growing up in a palace, swooned around as the guy who’d become King; he must have suffered a lot, losing his house and family so abruptly, but the way he acted gave out none of that pain. He looked bored or apathetic, respective of his duties, a silent hard-worker. Akashi was amazed.

They lost half an hour, much to his disappointment, but once Kuroko got up he passed beside him and carefully laid a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry.” he said and Akashi wondered why he was still believing that prince bullshit because the guy seriously had nothing royal.

As he resumed his walking – this time beside Tetsuya to make sure he didn’t stop again – he stole a glance at his face and decided that, probably, it was because of his eyes.

They promised him to tell no lies.

***

They camped beside a river bend when the sun went down and Akashi discovered that, if worms were not on the menu, Ryouta was quite a hunter. He left alone chirping happily with himself and came back not even half an hour later with three rabbits.

Seijuro wondered how they’d do with all that meat – they couldn’t risk animals following them or attack them during the night – but turned out his concern is pretty useless: Kagami and Aomine ate a rabbit each and Kuroko took so little that the third is more than enough to feed both him and Kise.

“That’s too little, Kuroko!” Taiga scolded while munching like a cow, “You’re never gonna grow up like that!”

“I eat what I need, Kagami-kun, and please refrain from talking with your mouth full. It’s quite disgusting.”

As the big scary warrior blushed and Aomine laughed openly, Akashi found himself sharing an amused little smile with Ryouta. Tetsuya sighed and kept on eating his little bites.

***

Later on, whit the moon high and Kuroko peacefully asleep in between the huge bodies of the idiots, the blond warrior got up to pick Akashi’s role of guard. 

Seijuro laid on the ground and engulfed himself with his cloak, ready to fight an hard battle against the cold, but he was surprised when Ryouta laid his coat over him. His face was the same of that morning, as he cried for a freaking worm, but somehow he looked far more dangerous and his eyes glowed of a strange threatening light: they were no more the sun of the daytime, they were the gold that would have killed far more than steel.

“Kurokocchi’s good at judging people.” the man said, wrapping the cover around Akashi’s body and the red-head let him do because he was too busy with holding his gaze and silently put an hand around his dagger. There was too much tension. “I’ll trust him, because this is what I had been trained to do and because I recognize his value.” There’s a flash in those eyes that reminded Seijuro of the light on a swinging blade, “But you dare betray him or lay a single finger on him and I’ll have your head before you can even realize what a huge and foolish mistake you’ve done.”

Seijuro waited a second, just to let the other think the threat had sunk in, then he snapped. He grabbed Kise’s fringe of hair and rolled with him just that much to swap their position and then his dagger was on Ryouta’s throat. He looked at the other, searching for a single twinge of fear, but there was none: the blond was studying him as much as he was and they stood like that for a while.

“What a luck that I’m not a fool, then.” he subtly whispered, slowly retracting his dagger and slipping down from the other’s waist.

Kise chuckled a bit.

“I definitely hope so,” he slowly said, getting up and sitting in the middle of their camp, openly giving his back to the red-head, showing a sudden trust that Seijuro wasn’t expecting, “ _Akashicchi._ ”

***

For the first time that night, Akashi slept without periodically waking up to check on his surroundings.

***

The other side of the coin in being recognized by Ryouta was that the man would  _not stop talking for his life_. Seijuro seriously considered chocking him, but even if he was sure that the other two were as strong as the blond one he was not that they were as smart.

Kise pretended to be an idiot, but he was not. He was attentive and cautious and his good looks and his mask of ignorance and cheerfulness were just weapons like those he carried at his waist. He was an enemy to be wary of, but most of all an ally that he didn’t want to lose in their situation.

He was not the captain, Akashi knew it, but somehow obeying unspoken orders coming from Tetsuya’s silent eyes was not as difficult as it probably would have been had they come from anybody else. Still, sometime the urge to shout at the three others was strong enough that he had to clench his fists painfully not to prevaricate the little prince’s authority. Because he had it, hidden like a secret weapon under the cover of the friendliness of his manners. A single word and the whole group would just fell at his feet and kiss the ground where he walked, not because of duty but because there was something naturally charming in him.

Akashi was sure he would have kissed no ground, but sometimes he had the feeling he had been kneeling that whole time without realizing.

***

They managed to walk for five days before they spotted the first garrison waiting for them at the entrance of the town where they were hoping to rest at: seven man, fully armed, not from his troops obviously. They had some papers with them, a portrait of a young girl, or at least that was how it should look but it was so poorly drawn that Kagami commented they could have easily walked before their eyes without being recognized and Akashi hadn’t find a reason to disagree.

Still, it was too dangerous and even if the others didn’t now, it was mostly because of him. He could have been recognized far too easily. Luckily, his comrades were a bit worried about such a sudden interest in catching a gipsy girl, even if accused of sorcery, and that was why Kuroko said he and Seijuro should have waited in the woods while someone else – “Maybe Kise-kun and Aomine-kun, since they weren’t with us the last time?” – entered the walls and bought what they needed. There were no objections, obviously.

When he approached Kise to give him his money and ask for some things he’d need, the blond man laughed to his face and Akashi discovered again how much he’d underestimated that group.

Aomine yawned and pulled out one of his boots, then cut the sole of the short heel to pull out a little sack of coins.  _Golden coins._

“Those will draw attention.” Seijuro commented all the same, but Aomine shrugged.

“Not if we’re careful and pay two times the price. People turn immediately silent that way.”

Again, Seijuro couldn’t object.

As the two men slipped out of the woods to approach the city from the main road, Kagami Taiga decided – under a particular look from a certain prince – to go around to make sure no soldiers were patrolling the area and Akashi decided that Kuroko was an idiot. Who’d be so eager to be left alone with someone who just a few days ago was on his tail?

“You give your trust away far too easily.” he said, not bothering to sugar his words.

The prince shrugged as he knelt on the ground to light a fire. Seijuro watched his poor attempts for a while before sitting in front of him – with a snort – and take the tools from his hands. He readjusted the little pieces of branches in a little cone and put some bark underneath before starting to brush the flint with another stone.

“My trust is safe.” Kuroko said suddenly, “As I am.”

“You’re not safe. You’re running. There’s a huge difference.”

“There’s none.” Akashi was startled by the determination in the prince’s voice, “I wasn’t safer in my home, than I am here and now.”

Seijuro’s hands stopped for a second, just one.

“This is just  _being content with little._ ” he murmured, “It still doesn’t mean you’re making a good decision.”

Kuroko smiled bitterly at his words, but shook his head.

“You know, my mother was a Christian, but my Father and his kingdom believed in something different.” His voice was low but firm and his eyes stood on Akashi’s hands so that he, for as much as those words were enthralling him, couldn’t stop their movements, “My ancestors talked about Mother Nature as the only goddess ever existed and that her body grew plants and animals, but not humans. They were born from Mother Nature’s tears when she lost the creatures that she held dearest, the Great Snakes. You call them dragons, I think.”

Seijuro nodded, but he wasn’t really too concerned with that point. Those words…did that mean that Kuroko truly was an heathen?! He knew that, as a citizen of another country, the prince was not supposed to be asked to answer the Holy Church about his faith, but with the situation they were in, revealing his identity if they were caught could have been ever more dangerous.

 _Witchcraft on a side, Blasphemy on the other._ , Akashi thought bitterly,  _We must be careful not to fall to either part._

Completely unaware of his thoughts, Kuroko kept on talking slowly, revealing the meaning behind his words carefully.

“Being born from tears, humans were weak and helpless against their own mother’s flesh. They were being swept away slowly but inevitably and the Great Mother, who couldn’t bear to lose another of her children, took away a crumble of soul from each of her other creatures and gave it to them, one for each.” His smile turned almost condescending, now. “Some now share their souls with bears. Some, like Kagami-kun, with tigers or, like Aomine-kun, with panthers, and can’t be tamed no matter what, because they’re wild and strong and fighters deep to their bones. Some are like Kise-kun, like wolves, and look up to a hierarchy they feel the need to protect even if they’re not on top and to some people they can’t help but follow in awe. They can be solitary, sometimes, but their true nature calls them to a pack. Kagami-kun and Aomine-kun are both too similar to get along, but at the same time they share enough to respect each other; Kise-kun had been alone before he met Aomine-kun and now he’d follow him and me to the end of the Earth. They’re being what their souls are telling them to and in all their natures is embodied a deep unbreakable loyalty, be it to their pack or their family or what they consider their flesh or pride. As long as I’m with them, I’m more than safe.”

A little fire was cracking slowly before the prince eyes, painting his pale skin in golden and warm shades, and Seijuro stood silent for a moment. Trusting people on the base of a legend seemed just too stupid and irrational, but at the same time he could see the analogies Kuroko had been talking about.

Kise was some kind of dog when he was cheerful, but Seijuro had always seen the danger behind the mask and, yes, his eyes were the ones of a wolf undoubtedly. He had studied the big felines the prince had compared Kagami and Aomine to and…well, yes, for as much as he’d seen them, it could work.

But still.

“What would that make you?” he asked then, carelessly.

Kuroko only smiled at the fire.

“When I saw your eyes for the first time,” he said instead, ignoring the question, but finally lifting his eyes to meet Akashi’s, “I had no doubt what was lying behind them.”

Seijuro held his gaze, just as expressionless as him.

“What?” he asked.

“A lion.” was the unhesitant answer and Kuroko’s eyes were lit by the reflection of flames on the side of his irises and looked as no defying was possible when the words came out of those lips, “You were just like a King yourself. Strong and determined and absolute. You were telling people with your only gaze that you were the one who’d always come out on top, no matter the adversary or the conditions. You were a lion and I wanted you to be by my side.” Somehow, Kuroko smiled a bit, but it was a melancholic gesture, “Maybe I just wanted someone to remind me of what I should have become, had not fate been this ironic for my family.”

Akashi didn’t know what to answer, so he moved his eyes back on the fire and his hands played with the stones he still held as he wondered just how much he should have told the other. About the legions of men he had led. About the people he had seen dying. About the way he truly had been a lion preying on helpless rabbits.

Tetsuya stood silent, watching his movements, then he hugged his legs with his arms and dig his chin in his knees.

“I asked you to join us because of your eyes.” he said suddenly, “And this is what you get for listening to me. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t overthink my actions,  _Your Majesty_.” Akashi answered, using the title with a light-hearted voice, “I, too, have trouble justifying them as for now.”

They watched silently as the fire came more and more to life. Kuroko didn’t say that he was still the sparkle that gave the start to Seijuro’s ruin and Seijuro didn’t say that he was probably the main reason for the huge number of men now on their tails.

Still, it was a comfortable silence.

***

Taiga came back just a an hour later and Aomine and Kise exited the city’s walls right before the curfew, but when they reached their camp there was a worried expression on their face.

“We’d better move our camp from here.” Kise murmured, eyeing their surrounding warily, “I have a bad feeling. The soldiers in the city were…weird.”

It was enough for them to pack their things and move on for the whole night. Normally Seijuro would question the trust Kuroko was placing in his man’s instinct, but not now.

Who better than a wolf could smell hunters?

***

When it dawned, they had walked far more than they had expected the evening before. With the help of a full moon and the mercy of the forest beasts who kept away from them – and Akashi felt stupid, but he couldn’t stop thinking about what Tetsuya had told him and how maybe those little foxes and such had recognized them as far more dangerous predators than as preys –, they managed to find a river they were supposed to get to only the next evening, so they agreed on stopping there for a little while and make turns to get some sleep.

Tetsuya offered to cover a turn, but the other four men completely ignored him.

***

Aomine could fish. Akashi was surprised to see such an impetuous and reckless warrior practising such a patient kind of hunt so he sat on the shore to see just how much it would have taken for him to get angry and give up.

To his surprise, he didn’t. He stood shirtless with his trousers rolled up to his knees, completely motionless for whole minutes, and snapped only at the last moment to grab his prey in his bare hands and break its neck before putting it away in his shirt, folded as a bag and tied to his side. He was fast and merciless, impossible to escape from. Akashi had to admit he looked a bit like a panther, especially with his dark skin.

He caught five fishes before he grunted and raised his eyes on him.

“Quite staring holes in my head, Sir General.” he growled, “Come here and give me a hand at least.”

Akashi arched a brow, wondering if it was the case to show the other  _who_  was really the best there, but in the end he deemed it a futile expense of energy, so he got up and pulled off his boots and shirt, tying it at his side like the other, then he entered the river.

He had fished sometimes when he was around eight, as he followed his father into one of his campaign in the Holy Land, but he could still remember it. Aomine ignored him when he took his first fish, scoffed at the second, growled at the third, spied angrily on him at the fourth, gotten all stiff and nervous at the fifth and finally shout a loud “HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING IT?!” at the sixth. It was amusing, indeed.

***

Since the fishing attempt had turned into a “who catches the most” battle, by lunch they had too much meat and both Kise and Kagami stared at them in a silent reproach that the men ignore, Aomine too busy sulking and Akashi still too satisfied for his display of dominance. Kuroko, completely indifferent, was examining the fishes one for one, recognizing them and writing things down on a little roll of papers.

“Midorima-kun will be glad to have all this details to study.” he commented when he noticed the frown Akashi was giving him and the man simply decided he didn’t want to know.

In the end, they cooked only what they could eat on the moment and packed as possible some of the rest to use for dinner. They walked some more in the afternoon, but stopped in the evening as a storm almost hit them before they could get to a little cave.

“What if a bear sleeps here?” Kagami commented, suspicious, but Kuroko showed him patiently how it wasn’t the case and in the end they chose to stay.

Akashi asked to cover the middle turn of guard, the worst one and the one when it would have been easier to attack the others in their deep slumbers, to see how they would react.

There were no complains.

***

They went on in a strange pace and friendly manner that would sometimes still throw Seijuro off. They were  _running away_  with the Inquisition on their trails, how could they act like that?! Sometimes he thought that it was because they had been running since so long that it probably almost felt normal; sometimes because the end of their journey was so close; sometimes because they, at least, knew what they were escaping from and where they were heading too. Sometimes he was almost sure it was only because they were all idiots.

Finally they got three days of marching from their destination and Akashi began feeling restless, weirdly enough. He had enough doubts and questions and he wasn’t sure of what he would’ve done after their arrival, but he was sure enough that his path was not yet to diverge from Tetsuya’s.

The brat was now looking at him like he was family and the others were friendlier too. Kagami was still sulking after being defeated in a dagger match and because he had scratched his cheek as a teasing, but Aomine was refusing to confront him and Kise tagged after him wailing happily. He was kind of at home too, so that wasn’t the point. It was something else, something that was making him uneasy especially at night, making him wake up during others’ turns of guard and earning from them sceptical and sometimes worried glances.

He couldn’t place, but he didn’t like it.

He was snapped out of his thought by a sudden frown painting Tetsuya’s usually blank face and his eyes flew fast to follow the prince gaze as his hand laid on the hilt of his dagger, now tied to his waist.

“What?” he asked and this time he wasn’t surprised when he noticed that the other four had taken defensive stances too.

Kuroko shook his head, looking down at the little town they were supposed to enter as their last stop before their destination.

“Let’s skip this.” He ordered, “I don’t want anyone to go there.”

Akashi frowned too, this time, as he looked at the little town.

It wasn’t anything worth being so worked up for, little and with wooden walls all around, a group of lost houses that seemed to have fallen from a bigger city. There wasn’t even a patrol guarding the entrance door.

 _Wait_., he sharpened his eyes, trying to take a better look at the gate, but there was indeed not a single soldier there. How come?

“Tetsuya is right.” he whispered lowly, his senses all tingling again, “I have a bad vibe about this too.”

“We can descend the hill on its north side.” Kise proposed, “We would deviate a little, but it will further our path no more than a day. I think it’s worth losing a bit of time, this thing doesn’t convince me either.”

Aomine and Kagami said nothing, but nodded as their eyes fell on Kuroko who turned his back to the city to move in the other direction, preceded by Kise alone. As if in silent agreement, the two warriors stood back for a moment more and Akashi with them.

“We’re close to the border, there’s no reason to leave a town completely unguarded, no matter how little.” Kagami muttered as soon as he was sure Kurko could not hear them, “Could it be that they knew about us?”

“We’re too far away for anybody to care, Bakagami.” Aomine hissed, but seemed nervous regardless, “We keep on hiding because it’s better play safe since when we’ll have Murasakibara and Midorima with us again, but we could easily walk through a city and they wouldn’t recognize us.”

Akashi didn’t answer, he didn’t even look at the others, a bit uncertain if telling the truth would’ve been better or not. Well, they knew he was someone important, probably from the Imperial Army, so they already were aware that they couldn’t exactly walk out in full day with him, so it was probably not important. He was trying to get rid of the name he carried, even if he still didn’t know why he had thrown it away with no second thought – he refused to believe it was just for Kuroko told him to –, so the less persons knew about it the sooner  _Akashi Seijuro_  would’ve vanished into thin air.

Still.

He kept on looking at the city as he felt anxiety growing and growing, making him restless for his inability to pinpoint its reason, but in the end he followed silently Aomine and Kagami.

That’s when the scream came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I don't know when chapter three will come, okay? Not sure, have no idea, this took me months so... who knows? But it should be the last chapter so... ;D
> 
> Akashi has a permanent migraine in this story, poor kid. And I love Kise v.v
> 
> See you,
> 
> Agap
> 
> P.S. Tumblr: agapantoblu.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> Royal!AU is my guilty pleasure and this story is taking me a lot 3:D Crossdressing!Kuroko is always good v.v
> 
> See you,
> 
> Agap


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